NEW YORK - At Wal-Mart these days, snowy weather is no longer an excuse for lateness. It had better be a natural disaster like a hurricane or blizzard. And being 10 minutes or more tardy for work three times will earn you a demerit. Too many of those could get you fired.

It's all part of a revised attendance policy implemented earlier this fall that makes Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hourly workers more accountable for excessive unexcused absences and formalizes such penalties.

The new rules already are drawing fire from critics who claim they are the latest attempt by the nation's largest private employer to weed out unhealthy and costly long-term workers as it seeks to cut labor costs.

John Simley, spokesman for Wal-Mart, calls the charges by labor-backed groups "invalid" and said the changes are an enhancement of the company's prior policy.

"We are formalizing and enforcing the policy to ensure greater consistency and to minimize subjectivity," he said.

"It is designed to produce a better work environment and a better shopping environment. The result is better communication and a better shopping experience," he said.

Documents furnished to The Associated Press by union-backed WakeUpWalmart.com show that employees must call an 800 number to report all absences and tardiness by an hour before the scheduled start time. They also have to call their manager with the confirmation code they received when calling the hot line number. In the past, employees got permission directly from their store managers.

"After a year of adopting antifamily policy after antifamily policy, Wal-Mart adds further insult to injury by adopting a new restrictive attendance policy that treats hard-working associates like children while penalizing them if, God forbid, they face a child or friend with a medical emergency," said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman at WakeUpWalmart.com.

The group is set to hold its first-ever national conference call with Wal-Mart employees and civil rights leaders Thursday to discuss the latest move as well as other recent labor changes.

In September, Wal-Mart said it will stop offering traditional low-deductible health plans for new hires next year in favor of low-premium plans with higher deductibles. Wal-Mart has maintained that the move will put more health care money and choices in the hands of its more than 1.3 million U.S. workers, but union-backed Wal-Mart critics claim it is pushing the rising costs of health care onto its workers.

Wal-Mart has also received heat from critics for implementing caps on its seven hourly pay grades. Employees who are at or above the cap will not have their pay cut, but they can only get a raise by moving to a higher-paid category.

Wal-Mart isn't the only major corporation grappling with how to cut down on no-shows; unscheduled absenteeism has climbed to its highest level since 1999, according to results released last week of an annual nationwide survey of 326 human resource executives in U.S. companies and organizations.

The survey, conducted for CCH Inc. by the Harris Interactive consulting firm, put the U.S. absenteeism rate at 2.5 percent in 2006, up from 2.3 percent a year ago and the highest since seven years ago when it was 2.7 percent. The survey found that personal illness makes up for only 35 percent of unscheduled absences, with the rest due to family issues, personal needs, stress and an entitlement mentality.

But Pamela Wolf, a workplace analyst at CCH, believes that Wal-Mart's absentee control program seems to be bucking the trend among major corporations to embrace work-life programs that are "designed to recruit and retain workers."

"This doesn't seem to be introducing flexibility to its employees," Wolf said, after being briefed on Wal-Mart's new policy.

Dan Butler, vice president of operations at the National Retail Federation, defended stricter attendance policies like Wal-Mart's, saying "if you don't have controls in place to hold employees accountable, you can't guarantee a certain level of service."

But some Wal-Mart employees, whose names were furnished by WakeUpWal-Mart.com, said in interviews that the new policy is too rigid.

The new policy reduces the number of unapproved absences allowed to three from the previous four during a rolling six-month period. Employees who have more than three unapproved absences will be disciplined; seven will result in termination, according to the documents. Simley said under the old policy, employees were terminated after six unapproved absences.

The new policy appears more rigid when it comes to authorized absences. In the past, general bad weather would suffice as an authorized excuse; now it has to be a natural disaster like a hurricane or blizzard. Wal-Mart is now defining tardiness more rigidly as beginning work 10 minutes or more after the scheduled start time, which results in an incomplete shift. Three incomplete shifts add up to one unauthorized absence.

Simley argued that the new policy is more flexible. Before, employees could have been marked down as tardy for being a just few minutes late for work, he said.

Under the revised policy, Wal-Mart is encouraging employees who are sick for more than three days to apply for unpaid leave of absence under the Family Medical Leave Act.

"They always said family comes first; now, are they coming last?" asked Cynthia Murray,a Hyattsville, Md., resident, who works in the fitting room of a Wal-Mart store in Laurel, Md.

One of the changes that Murray is upset about is that Wal-Mart now counts leaving work early to pick up a sick child as a strike against you. Simley argued that Wal-Mart always counted that as an unauthorized absence.

Mike Turner, who resigned three weeks ago as assistant manager of a Wal-Mart store in Crosby, Tex., said he was briefed about the changes by his bosses earlier this fall. He said that under the old policy, managers would approve excuses on a case-by-case basis, but the 800 number eliminates such "human interaction."

"I believe in being fair," he said, noting he personally approved plenty of situations that made a worker late like flooding or a car breaking down. "What can you tell a good associate that you are going to discipline because of a system that goes against human interaction?" he asked.

For the uninitiated, the demerit system was in use in the United States Post Office Department for many decades. The cap on pay grades is, of course, the establishment of something remarkably similar to the United States government grade/step system.

Somebody tell me why it is going to be all that advantageous for Wal-Mart to begin adopting government personnel and pay policies?

Documents furnished to The Associated Press by union-backed WakeUpWalmart.com show that employees must call an 800 number to report all absences and tardiness by an hour before the scheduled start time.

Sounds very convenient and fair to me. Did unions harass Sears and K-Mart like this back in the day?

There was always someone who had already worked their shift, depending on me, to relieve them, on time. Being consistently late is just rude, inconsiderate, and irresponsible. I don't know how many double shifts I pulled, over many years, because someone just plain old never bothered to show up, at all. I reckon I've heard every BS excuse in the book, damned few of them were reasonable.

For the past eight years I've been trying to find one of those Walmarts that only sells merchandise made in China. So far I've only been able to find Walmarts that sell pretty much the exact same merchandise as any other national chain. Heck, with the exception of some clothing lines, I've only been able to find Walmarts that sell the same products as our military exchanges.

For a real kick in the ass, in the Seattle area the only place you could buy an American flag, made in America, after 9/11 was Walmart.

Granted, I've only checked out Walmarts in twenty or so states which may have exemptions from the Chinese Walmarts, but now my quest can come to an end.

Tell me where one of these Walmarts is that only sells merchandise made in China. I was beginning to think it was all an urban legend.

Unions can be managed by stupid, greedy, shortsighted people just like a business or government can.

A lot of the problems with unions can be traced back to states requiring unions membership to work in certain trades. While people have the right to ban together to achieve better working conditions and compensation, they should not be compulsory.

Unions did the things you mention. They could not have done so without the help of the government.

19
posted on 11/01/2006 7:19:24 PM PST
by Hawk1976
(And for my next trick I will use splel chuck.)

In a previous life I was a employment counselor. Found a young man a job, then saw him several days later in my office, so I asked him what happened? He replied: "those people at XYZ Company tried to tell me what to do!"

I had to have an informal pre motion conference in Federal court in Bridgeport, about 1 hour from my office. It was blizzard conditions and the radio was announcing closings, including Federal Courts. All except this Judge and when I walked in 10 minutes late trying to explain about the weather conditions and traffic all he said was didn't I listen to the weather report the night before and make the appropriate preparations. He said sanctions would follow the next time either counsel was late, for any reason, and this was an informal chambers conference.

Funny, I bought two flags after 9/11 from a mom and pop store down the street from my house. Both manufactured by an American company that guarantees that.....oops, wrong thread for that (not a borders thread).

Then again, as far as national chains, I get better service at local chains, not only that you can find more American manufactured products at them for rougly the same price as Wal-Mart's junk. Funny how that works out.

I really have no idea how many Wal-Mart's I've been in, but one can be assumed to much like the other. I look at the tags when I happen to be in one. 90% of the non-perishable goods, clothing, electronics, ceiling fans ets. are made in China.

26
posted on 11/01/2006 7:30:24 PM PST
by Hawk1976
(And for my next trick I will use splel chuck.)

Here's an idea: if Wal-Mart's employment policies are not to your liking, don't go to work for Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart's merchandise isn't to your liking, don't shop at Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart represents something you don't care for, don't patronize Wal-Mart.

I'm not too sure where I'll be this weekend. Once I find out where this Chinese Walmart is the wife and I are hitting the road. I have been waiting eight years to visit one of them, I'm not going to pass up this chance.

I once walked into a law and motion calendar about 1 minute late. I got in line with the other attorneys and when I got to the clerk's desk he informed me that I was not in line at 1:30 so I would have to return tomorrow.

I was just thankful that it was a simple ex-parte motion and that there wasn't any drop dead statute that expired on that day or I would have had to explain my tardiness to my malpractice carrier.

I always make sure I arrive at such events at least 1/2 hour early.

I did get stuck in traffic on my way to Oral Arguments on an appeal once and I arrived about 6 minutes late. Normally (since there are usually several cases on calender each day -- and the criminal cases go first) I figured that it would not be a big deal, but it just so happened that my case was the first one called.

< When I arrived at the courthouse I couldn't find the elevator right away so I ended up running up three flights of stairs and the moment I walked into the back of the courthouse they called my case. I was completely out of breath and my heartrate was somewhere in the low hundreds.

Since I was the moving party I had to go first. I was simply too out of breath to make my prepared speech and after about 30 seconds of pretending to be cool and trying my hardest to sound lawyerly, one of the Justices interrupted me and started asking questions. That gave me just enough time to compose myself. Interestingly almost right away the justice asked me a question about a position that I was arguing against. I said, "well, I think that is something you would need to ask the respondent." At that point the justice said, "Perhaps we should," and they immediately allowed me to step down and they called him. After that, they gave my opponent a thorough dressing down and pelted him with questions he was obviously not prepared to answer. Then when they were done with him, they asked me if I had anything else to add. My response was, "No your honor, nothing." I dodged a bullet on that one.

Now when I have an oral argument on an appeal, I make sure I arrive at least an hour and half early.

For a real kick in the ass, in the Seattle area the only place you could buy an American flag, made in America, after 9/11 was Walmart.

It was the same in PA, Wal-Mart was the only place carrying stocks of American Flags.

Another biggie for me was the emergency call for supplies from the rescuers at Ground Zero in the days following 9/11. They badly needed boots, gloves, flashlights, batteries, bottled water, energy bars, etc. Wal-Mart was giving everyone a discount who came in buying stuff to donate to the searchers at the Trade Center rubble.

36
posted on 11/01/2006 7:48:57 PM PST
by Tamzee
(If you got 75 or 80% of what you were asking for... you take it & fight for the rest later - Reagan)

During the Ross fiasco here in Connecticut, the Federal Judge hearing just motions, not the case, called the defense counsel on a Sunday night and threatened him with sanctions and disbarment if he did not file a motion for psychiatric review even though Ross had already been interviewed and stated he didn't want any furhter delay in his execution. The judge was later found to have filed motions and brief opposing the Connecticut death penalty which he did not disclose to counsel. He did not think there was any need to disclose since he was obviously not biased; he was the Judge.

Can anyone PLEASE give me the location of a Walmart here in the United States of America that doesn't sell pretty much the exact same merchandise that all the major chains sell and our military exchanges?

Can anyone PLEASE give me the location of a Walmart that sells 90% merchandise made in China?

Little do you know about government policies. They simply do not encourage punctuality.

In any case, in your larger Wal-Mart stores, folks work shifts of different durations that start and stop at varying times.

The "service" problem is one of having sufficient people there at appropriate times to move stock into place, or man cashregisters.

Although the workers seem to be able to handle the schedule, supervisors have a tendency to want to buck the schedules and knock folks into what they view as "punctuality" by means of incremental changes of worker schedule that tend to be invisible to higher levels of management.

Wal-Mart will end up with the same problems the post office (in this or any other country) has always had.

He said that under the old policy, managers would approve excuses on a case-by-case basis, but the 800 number eliminates such "human interaction."

Hmmm...see, what this tells me is that managers weren't being supported when they WOULD try to discipline someone for being late. Typical retail problem: a manager tries to run a tighter ship, and then someone from a "protected" class threatens to file a grievance. Higher-level manager doesn't want the hassle, so they tell the lower manager to back down. Slack employees are thus emboldened to keep doing it, and the problem snowballs. Not unique to WalMart.

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